TacoCat (kinda) Cooks! #30: Pan Fried Salmon with Pasta Alfredo and...

Hey Hive!

We're back with more of our home cooking! If you're unfamiliar with this series, it's where I showcase some of the recipes we've been trying at home since we've been cooking a lot nowadays! Also I'm running out of content so yeah gotta make the most of it!

So I came across this alfredo recipe the other day and since it was only 3 ingredients (pasta, butter and parmesan) it seemed pretty simple to make compared to another alfredo recipe I tried.

It seemed deceptively simple, but I have followed a couple of Emma's recipes before so I figured I'd try it out for myself! But I wanted to add more to the pasta to make it a full meal with vegetables and proteins and I thought of combining other recipes I tried like my favourite Air-fried Roasted Veggies and Pan-fried Salmon!

It'd been a while since we had salmon so I thought this would be the perfect time to try another salmon pasta recipe!

Here are the full list of ingredients for this meal:

linguine
butter
parmesan
salmon fillet
frozen broccoli
carrots
salt
paprika
cayenne pepper
black pepper
olive oil

Pasta alfredo ingredients:

Since the air fryer was probably going to take the longest, I prepared the veggies first.

Step 1: Slice the carrot julienne, and pour the broccoli in a big bowl.

Step 2: Drizzle olive oil and add the seasonings (salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, paprika) on the veggies. Toss them to make sure they're coated as evenly as possible.

Step 3 (not pictured): Put the veggies in the air-fryer/oven at 190°C for about 9 minutes.

We prepare the salmon. The filet Sean bought back was quite an uneven piece so I had to slice it into two.

Step 4: Wash and dry the salmon with paper towels.

Step 5: Season the salmon with the same seasonings used the veggies (those are the only ones I have, feel free to add whatever seasoning you choose).

Step 6: Drizzle olive oil onto a pan on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot enough and some steam is coming from the pan, add in the salmon skin-side down. Let it cook for about 3 minutes depending on how thick your salmon is.

Step 7 (not pictured): Flip the salmon over and cook it briefly skin-side up before flipping again to get the crispy skin.

Step 8: Once the salmon is light pink and skin is crispy, plate it and set it aside. I also added some mixed herbs on top of the salmon as garnish.

Lastly, we cook the pasta. Now I didn't follow the recipe exactly or I would've known this was already a mistake since I wasn't supposed to use linguine but I just wanted to try if this would work too.

Step 9: Boil a pot of water for the pasta. Once the water is boiled add in the pasta and salt the water generously.

Step 10: Scoop out some water and/or let the water evaporate until only some enough for a sauce remains. Add in the butter and the cheese and stir continuously.

Step 11: Keep stirring adding more cheese if needed until the pasta is well incorporated with a creamy sauce.

I think I screwed up a little bit here since I dumped too much of the pasta water away and the cheese and butter wasn't mixing with the pasta well. It might've been the type of cheese I was using since I had better luck with mozzarella last time. But this parmesan was clumping up more on the pot than on the pasta unfortunately.

Once the pasta is cooked, it's time to plate!

I took my roasted veggies out of the air fryer:

And plated the pasta with the salmon. We end up with two nice full plates of healthy, tasty deliciousness!

The veggies were nicely roasted and charred to perfection, just like how Sean and I like it, while the pasta was alright, maybe needed a little more salt or some chili flakes.

I think other than the cheese clumping and not exactly coating the pasta, it was otherwise pretty alright. I think the other pasta alfredo recipe was still better with linguine and since that's the cheapest pasta we can get here I guess I'll just stick with that recipe instead. It needs more ingredients but it works and its tastier and healthier since it uses milk.

The salmon was actually almost perfect for me, but I think it was a tad too raw for Sean. He likes it more cooked and the thicker piece was probably around a medium rare because it was so thick. That was my bad, I should've cooked it about a minute longer than I did. The thinner piece was perfect though so I gave him that one instead. I actually didn't mind the medium rare doneness on the salmon, but it would've tasted even better if I left it on the pan a little longer. It looks okay from the side but the inside was still quite orange. At least it was still juicy and not dry though!

Overall, I think it was still a very delicious meal and definitely very satisfying! I'd been craving salmon for quite some time so I'm glad I got to cook and eat it again. And it was fun to try out a different pasta recipe even though it didn't work out as well as I had hoped. It was still yummy and I'm glad Sean enjoyed it too! Maybe next time we'll try to make it with the right pasta.